This invention relates to article carriers and generally, to basket style carriers or cartons for bottles or other product containers. Particularly, this invention relates to bottom lock arrangements and methods for these basket style carriers.
Many different styles of bottle and can carrier structures are known in the prior art and used in the beverage industry to market beer and soft drink containers. Basket style carriers or cartons represent one of the most common types of carrier structures used in the beverage industry. These basket style carriers typically include opposed side and end walls and having partitions which define multiple cells. The latter basket carriers typically have six or eight such cells that are provided in side by side rows of three or four cells that are divided by a center wall. The basket carriers receive a filled beverage bottle, for example, in each cell and which are ultimately supported by the carrier's floor structure. The center wall is provided with a handle slot at its upper portion to permit easy lifting and carrying of the filled carrier by the consumer.
As known in the beverage industry, basket carriers are typically top loaded at the bottling facility. Thus, basket carriers typically require filled bottles to be inserted into the carrier's cells from the top. Thus, it is common practice for the carton manufacturer to glue or connect the basket carrier together so that when it is erected it is fully assembled and ready to receive bottles or other product containers. The basket carrier is structured by the manufacturer so that it can be knocked down or placed in a flat configuration when it is shipped.
Upon receiving the knocked down or flat basket carriers, the bottling facility erects the basket carriers and fills them with products such as beer or soft drink containers. Therefore, top loading basket carriers are common in the bottling industry.
Alternatively, and as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,324, issued Feb. 7, 1989, and assigned to Applicant's assignee of this application, cartoner assemblies and methods are known whereby the bottles, cans, or other product containers are loaded through the bottom of the basket carriers. These bottom loading style basket carriers provide various commercial advantages and which provide labor and machinery cost savings. The bottom loading basket carriers are manufactured and shipped to a bottling facility in a knocked down shipping configuration. In use, the bottom loaded basket carriers when erected with their bottom portions open are moved vertically over predetermined arrangements of bottles whereby each bottle is positioned in the individual cells of the basket carriers. Thereafter, the carrier's floor panel is closed and connected so that the bottles can be carried by the ultimate retail consumer.
In summary, the floor of the bottom loading basket carrier is not closed or sealed when it is shipped from the carton manufacturer. As mentioned above, this arrangement omits any preloading at a bottle manufacturer, and individual bottles are not required to be lifted from the carriers prior to filling the containers at the bottling facility.
Various prior art bottom loading basket carrier structures are known, and which consist of carrier structures that require the use of adhesives to assemble the carton structures or they have various floor locking systems to effect this configuration. Two such basket carrier structures are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Application, Ser. No. 354,339, and PCT Ser. No. 89/02332, and in U.S. Pat. Application, Ser. No. 354,338, and PCT Ser. No. 89/02331. The latter basket carrier structures are of the type that require adhesives to provide the assembled basket carrier structure. Various other floor locking structures have been proposed in the past, however, these carrier configurations have several disadvantages. First, various physical locking systems are configured so that they do not result in the required floor assembled strength. Also, the assembled cartons do not maintain their square structure after being filled and locked together because of paper board memory which results in a tendency to return the carrier structure to its flat collapsed configuration. This lack of carrier squareness is not desirable from a retail standpoint in the marketing of beverage products to retail customers.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a bottom lock arrangement for basket carriers that are loaded through the bottom, and which provides a physical locking arrangement that overcomes the shortcomings of these prior art basket carrier structures. It is another object of this invention to provide such a bottom lock arrangement which provides structural strength to the floor of the carrier, and which provides locking members that are easily utilized during the carton assembly process, and which results in an erected carton configuration that maintains its square configuration. The bottom lock arrangements of this invention also provide bottom filled basket carrier structures which do not require the use of adhesives and which are usable with various styles of bottles or other product containers.